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American Morning

Authorities Questioning Several People in Kidnap and Murder Case of Samantha Runnion

Aired July 19, 2002 - 09:02   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: In California, authorities there say they are questioning several people in the kidnap and murder case of 5-year-old Samantha Runnion.

Right now to Rusty Dornin, watching this again, early this morning, where police again, Rusty, say they are "significantly closer" -- their words -- to solving the case.

Good morning again to you.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, bill, you know, it's been a very busy night, obviously, in Southern California, as several search warrants were served in the area. As you said, they have questioned several individuals and served several search warrants in connection with this case.

Now there were four search warrants served on a cars related to this case, three of which belonged to the same man, according to "The L.A. Times" report, three green vehicles belonging to a man in a Lake Elsinore apartment. Now, Lake Elsinore is very near where the body of Samantha Runnion was discovered,

And apparently, what they discovered in those cars led them to get a search warrant on another car, a white vehicle.

Now, while the sheriff said they're looking at several suspects, they are not focusing in on any one yet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF MICHAEL CARONA, ORANGE CO. POLICE: We are looking at several different individuals, and we're going to narrow this as quickly as we possibly can. We have not made an arrest yet. And so we still need the public to give us any and all information that they have that may lead to an arrest of the man that killed Samantha. We are hoping that the individuals that we're looking at through our investigative process that one of them will come out to be Samantha's killer, and we can put this case to rest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DORNIN: Now, Sheriff Corona did say they found a lot of physical evidence at the scene where Samantha Runnion was killed, but he will not confirm whether there was DNA evidence found there, and of course, there's more than 2,000 leads come in. We're here at the command center. Two double-wide trailers full of folks with fax machines and phones taking every lead they can, trying to tracks down this killer -- Bill.

HEMMER: A lot of leads already. Rusty, thanks. Rusty Dornin up early this morning in California.

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